Something to liven this blog up

It's been a really really long time since anybody posted anything on this blog. I wonder if anyone even comes to this blog anymore??? I do admit that I still check it religiously though... despite my lack of want to post. But seeing as I am the queen of procrastination and there is really quite alot of other constructive tasks that require my attention at the mo, I thought it necessary for me to come and drop a note.

There's just hasn't been too many exciting things happening here. What shall I post about? Mm, I guess I shan't bore you lot with the nitty gritty about how stressful things have been with revision and the likes... how about some pictures from... Christmas??

I was going over to spend Christmas with a family from my church in Liverpool... I was skint, so I made a batch of truffles and gave it to them as a gift (of course, the little boys in the family got toys from me too!) Here is a picture of what I made... everything, including the box but excluding the ribbon, was made with my bare hands.)

This cute little boy is Ben. One of the 3 adorable kids in the family

People always wonder what a traditional British Christmas dinner looks like... so here it is! Essential parts of the meal: Turkey, roast potatoes, sprouts, pigs in blankets and bread sauce.

The cute boys tucking into their meal

And this is what Christmas should be like, EVERYYEAR, whether you're little or grown up... Christmas with lots and lots of people, and lots and lots of presents!!!

Random photo, but I just love the Christmas lights that people put up during the festive season. So pretty!!

Ok, enough about Christmas... on to New year...

This year, I went to Conventry to visit our CT rep during the pre-CNY period... Conventry is a much smaller place than I imagined it to be... not very much goes on there (well, from what I saw in the 2 days I was there anyway), and it's very quiet... The roads in the city (or town??) are narrow, winding and bumpy (esp the ones through Warwick uni campus), and the bus drivers aren't very good at driving. I ended up being VERY motion sick during a large part of my time there. We'd get on the bus to get somewhere, and then I'd end up feeling nauseous for the next hour or so. And just as I was about to get better and start being a little more cheery and chatty, we get on the bus again and the whole process repeats. That day, we took the bus FOUR FLIPPIN TIMES. Can you imagine the agony that I was in???? I felt so sorry towards KW cos I really didn't mean to be such a non-enthused visitor.

Ok, so other than the buses, most of the place was quite nice. We went to Kenilworth and spent a VERY LONG TIME having afternoon tea. Haha... on the contrary, the main attraction, i.e. Kenilworth castle, took only about 15 minutes of our time there.

Beautiful blue sky and green grass and good company... en route to the cafe in Kenilworth

"Time for tea"-- where we spent most of the day

Kenilworth castle ruins in the background

It was really good chatting to KW again tho. Haha, I remember that the first thing I told him when I met him at the train station was that I would not speak in English! And so it was! I spent the weekend relishing in good old (rusty) Mandarin (KW's was rustier than mine, haha)... We caught up and cracked politically incorrect jokes just like in the good ol' days, which was nice.

We wanted to go for karaoke (can u believe it? they have karaoke in Conventry!) in the evening, which I was very excited about cos I've not found a karaoke place throughout my time in the UK... or any karaoke kakis for that matter (considering that most of my friends are non-Asian). So I was really looking forward to it, only to be disappointed that those rooms needed to be booked in advance. And so, what do you think we did? We went back to KW's place and played games. And you know what, I'm glad we did cos I've not laughed so much in a very very long time. It was completely manic that evening cos KW and I have no image to maintain in front of each other and so we said and did the most extraordinarily dumb things. For example, we played this electric shock game: each player needs to hold on to a metal handle-like thing, and then press a button on the handle once the light on the main machine changed from red to green. The last person to press the button gets an electric shock! We were SO scared LAH. Ok, I admit I was more scared... and so I ended up laughing and crying as KW tried to trick me into playing the game (I really didnt want to). We had a video of it... but KW hasn't sent it to me as promised YET! ARGH. We played good ol' uno too, which was ace. But, the man kept forcing me to listen to his not-very-nice-to-listen music... (think: Lots of Fann Wong, Sun Yanzi, and even Sun HO??? His whole playlist was comprised of Singaporean singers only... ok, I think he's gonna kill me for saying this) :( We ended up arguing over who had the better music taste.

He was a gentleman that day, and let me take his bed while he slept on an air mattress in his study. (: I was very pleased... esp since the boiler in his house had broken down and it was FREEEEEEEEEEEZZZING cold.

The next day, I went to church with his housemate Yen (who had been really friendly throughout the weekend) before heading back to Lancaster. Here's a parting shot...

OK, so that sums up my mini-adventure to the South. And I think I've just about procrastinated enough as I am starting to feel guilt swell up within me. I shall leave you all at that. Take care peeps!

Love.

p.s. KW, are u gonna send me the video or not???